Regional

12:01 am

Tue December 14, 2010

Phone, Internet, and 911 Service Restored After Qwest Outage

Las Cruces – Phone, internet, and 911 service has been restored throughout Dona Ana County.

Calls began coming in again to 911 at about 7:45 p.m., and testing of the system has just been completed to ensure the service is stable. The widely known number went down shortly after 4 p.m. due to severed phone lines north of Dona Ana County.

Non-emergencies can still be reported to (575) 526-0795.

At all times during the phone outage, the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority remained in full contact via radio with emergency services and law enforcement in the field.

At approximately 10 a.m. Tuesday, 12 Qwest fiber optic lines were cut approximately 18 miles south of Socorro, N.M. Redundant lines allowed 911 service to continue despite that incident, but at approximately 4 p.m., the redundant lines were cut near Tijeras, N.M. That cut interrupted all calls to the 9-1-1 centers serving the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority and the New Mexico State Police Dispatch Center.

The fiber cuts also interrupted 911 service to nearly three dozen 911 emergency call centers in New Mexico, as well as 12 sites in Arizona. During the outage, the Dona Ana County Emergency Operations Center was activated, and the public was asked to place emergency calls to the non-emergency phone numbers for MVRDA and State Police.

The primary fiber cut was repaired by Qwest shortly before 8 p.m., allowing 911 service to resume normally throughout Dona Ana County.